American Dental Association Establishes John W. Stanford New Investigator Award for Standards-Related Research Paper

Applications Due Aug. 31

CHICAGO, Feb 7, 2012 – The American Dental Association (ADA) is accepting applications for the new John W. Stanford New Investigator Award. The award highlights the crucial role dental standards play in assuring patient health and safety and the efficacy of dental products.

Dental standards are developed by dental professionals to establish specific technical, performance and/or safety requirements for dental products. The John W. Stanford New Investigator Award was designed to encourage dentists and dental students to conduct standards-based research and standards development.

Dental students and dentists who have earned their dental degree no earlier than 2007 are eligible to apply for the John W. Stanford New Investigator Award. Applicants are required to submit an original research report that could be published and must submit an explanation of how the research incorporates current dental standards and/or contributes to the development of dental standards. Applications, which can be downloaded from the ADA website Dental Standards, are due by Aug. 31, 2012.

The awards committee is composed of an ADA board member as well as leaders from the ADA Council on Scientific Affairs and the ADA Standards Committee on Dental Products. The awards committee, along with the ADA Council on Scientific Affairs, will select the winner and then will announce the winner in December. The winner will receive airfare and a two-night hotel stay to present his or her award-winning paper March 2013 at the ADA Standards Committee on Dental Products and the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to the International Organization for Standardization Technical Committee 106 on Dentistry Meeting in Seattle. The winner will also be announced in the ADA’s member publication, ADA News, and the winning paper will be eligible for publication in a dental journal.

The ADA has played a key role in the development of dental standards since 1928. A team of expert volunteers from the ADA Standards Committee on Dental Products and the U.S. Technical Advisory Group, both of which the ADA administers, conducts national and international dental standards development work. The namesake of this award, the late Dr. John W. Stanford, was a pivotal force in dental standards development for more than 40 years and was responsible for the establishment of the ADA’s current standards program.

For more information about the ADA Standards Programs, please visit: Dental Standards.

About the ADA

The not-for-profit ADA is the nation's largest dental association, representing 163,000 dentist members. The premier source of oral health information, the ADA has advocated for the public's health and promoted the art and science of dentistry since 1859. The ADA's state-of-the-art research facilities develop and test dental products and materials that have advanced the practice of dentistry and made the patient experience more positive. The ADA Seal of Acceptance long has been a valuable and respected guide to consumer dental care products. The monthly The Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) is the ADA's flagship publication and the best-read scientific journal in dentistry. For more information about the ADA, visit ADA.org. For more information on oral health, including prevention, care and treatment of dental disease, visit the ADA's consumer website MouthHealthy.org